U.S. retailers will move their supply chains out of Africa and into Asia should Congress not renew the African Growth and Opportunity Act or change the third-country fabric provision for the region, according to trade groups representing domestic U.S. apparel retailers.
For the countries outside America's top 30 or so trading partners, the U.S. likely will apply either 10% or 15% tariffs, President Donald Trump said in a telephone interview July 16.
The U.S. opposed two importers' bid to have the Supreme Court hear their challenge to the president's ability to impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has a chance to hear the case. The government argued that the high court shouldn't step in before either the D.C. Circuit or the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has had a chance to address the claims against the IEEPA tariffs, particularly since both courts are hearing the appeals on very expedited timelines (Learning Resources v. Donald J. Trump, Sup. Ct. # 24-1287).
Trade observers are waiting for more information about whether Aug. 1 tariffs on Canada and Mexico will include goods that currently qualify for duty-free treatment under USMCA, according to comments by Flexport officials during a July 16 webinar.
The president of Indonesia confirmed to reporters in Jakarta that he agreed to 19% tariffs, in exchange for buying more wheat, soybeans, fuel and Boeing aircraft.
The U.S. will set one tariff rate for "smaller countries" in a "notice of payment" without negotiation, President Donald Trump said.
CBP issued the following releases on commercial trade and related matters:
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative launched a Section 301 investigation on Brazilian policies that discriminate against American firms, naming these issues:
Former top trade negotiator Wendy Cutler, who, as a career employee in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative led on the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, said that South Korea can't make concessions to avoid 25% tariffs on its exports if the 25% Section 232 tariffs on autos and 50% tariffs on steel go unchanged in the deal.
President Donald Trump, after returning from a political event in Pennsylvania the evening of July 15, told reporters that Section 232 tariffs on pharmaceuticals will start "probably at the end of the month, and we're going to start off with a low tariff and give the pharmaceutical companies a year or so to build, and then we're going to make it a very high tariff, because we gotta move them here."